My first few days in Hamburg

I arrived yesterday here in Hamburg. Not so easy to me moving to a big town like Hamburg. I rented a guest room temporarily in a domitory, costs around 270€ per month, very expensive indeed. A domitory room in Oldenburg, like the one HK stayed last time costed only around 150€. We calculated and found that the rooms here cost around 50% more than in Oldenburg. No wonder in such a big city like Hamburg. It should be a well furnished guest room, however I just got a room in a normal apartment which is just free for one month. Peak season now since semester is starting, must accept. The room is on the 9th floor, condition? Terrible! Untidy, dirty and old. I have heard that the domitories in Hamburg are not maintain properly and I couldn't imagine that it is this bad. We both cleaned the room and went out for shopping. We bought a water kettle, food and daily needs. It is a nice little water kettle that changes colour depending on the temperature of the water. At the beginning, it is still blue but turns red when the water is boiled. Funny. The night, we went out for shopping and walked through the city center. Didn't know what to have for dinner and decided for fast food at the central station, KFC, finger lick'in good. We called it a day as we were so tired and directly went back to my room for rest. Couldn't really sleep the whole night as I was ancious of the first German class the next morning.

View from my window

My funny kettle

Today, we woked up early for breakfast and then headed to the university. Fortunately, the classmates are all ok and friendly and I felt comfortable. They come from every corner of the world, four asians including me, two from China and one from south Korea. Others from America, Africa and some from the rest of Europe. We had a test today to check our German level, Einstufungstest. The test was indeed not that hard and luckily I made a small revision the night before, result is coming out tomorrow and I am very excited. The German teachers are also very nice, hope that they stay so for the rest of the course. In fact, it is not plain languange course as they integrated some cultural activities into it, like get together party this weekend (I would not be able to join as I am going back to Oldenburg with HK and Pei Wei), museum visit, theater night and daily excursion in Hamburg and nearby cities. I think I will enjoy the course.

The course today ended quite early and we both went for a short sight-seeing in Hamburg city center. Took some photos and spent some time in a shopping mall. The city is really big and I think I need more time to explore. Hope that I could settle down as soon as possible. Before we went home, we stopped by at Ikea to grab a table lamp, rubbish bin, two pillows. Hope that I could find a better room in October.

Hamburg City Hall Building at the background

Europa Passage shopping mall